Causeway ordeal hits Bahrain factories

Manama, June 23, 2013

Bahrain's factories have reduced their production due to the chronic truck ordeal on the King Fahad Causeway, the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry said yesterday (June 22).

Major firms are also reconsidering expansion plans or investment for fear of massive losses, the Chamber was quoted as saying in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

The chamber warned of the negative impact of the problem on the future of industries.

It urged a quick solution to solve the truck ordeal and called upon authorities to implement the directives of HRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.

"Traders and exporters are complaining about their ordeal particularly at the entrance of the causeway from the Bahraini side," it said.

The crisis has also caused transport fees to rise, leading to more losses for industries.

The GDN earlier reported that it is taking up to four days for empty trucks to return to Bahrain after completing deliveries to Saudi Arabia due to delays on the causeway. Transport companies have also claimed that they are being sidelined by authorities as the trucks chaos continues.

Truckers had blamed the slow clearing process on Saudi Customs and a lack of space at the crossing on the causeway.

Additionally, national exporting firms voiced serious concerns that they may lose their customers' confidence in case they find it difficult to honour their commitments in time.

Meanwhile, it was also revealed that a 45-lane expansion to the causeway at a cost of more than BD6 million ($15.65 million) could be soon underway.

A study was underway to create man-made islands to accommodate the expansion project, it was reported earlier.

The GDN reported that the ambitious plan to expand the causeway is part of a study carried out by causeway authorities to meet significant increase in commercial and passenger traffic by 2020.

With hold-ups already affecting loaded trucks travelling from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia, it means that vehicles can take more than a week to complete round trips that should take just a few hours. – TradeArabia News Service